Zanu PF politburo video exposé

A 72-minute video presented in the Zanu PF politburo by Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo on July 19, which is now circulating among senior party members and state security agents, portrays Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa as a callous, corrupt and power hungry individual who is systematically trying to usurp President Robert Mugabe’s power.

By Gagare

The Zimbabwe Independent has watched the explosive video — part of Moyo’s defence of embattled Zanu PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere — which fast turns into a brutal scrutiny Mnangagwa.

The video opens with a cast of Mnangagwa loyalists, including leaders of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association Chris Mutsvangwa and Victor Matemadanda as well as expelled Mashonaland Central Zanu PF youth leader Godfrey Tsenengamu demanding change in the Zanu PF leadership because “the people that we entrusted with power have failed.”

It goes on to highlight a nine-page document called Blue Ocean, which the politburo heard was authored by Mnangagwa and his allies, providing a roadmap to seizing power from Mugabe, beginning in 2015 after the ousting of former vice-president Joice Mujuru, Mnangagwa’s long-time rival for the throne. lt has many other dramatic episodes.
Blue Ocean strategy

The document says Zanu PF has three options: where the party and consequently government must go; where Mugabe wants the party to go; and the path to self-destruction and oblivion.

It says Mnangagwa must seize control of the party and guide it along the first path. It also outlines strategies to weaken the G40 faction by targeting some of its stalwarts like First Lady Grace Mugabe and politburo members Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao, Ignatius Chombo and Moyo.

This includes directing the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) to crack down on Chombo, Moyo and Kasukuwere.

State capture

The video says Mnangagwa is working systematically to undermine Mugabe by capturing party and state institutions. Among the institutions doing Mnangagwa’s bidding are the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Zacc, Zimpapers and the military.

The video states that Mnangagwa is using the NPA for “successionist objectives”. It states that the Ministry of Justice has directed the NPA to “disclose information on high-profile cases” to the ministry, including the stage each case has reached.

Letters of official complaint written by NPA officials were presented as evidence. The video also revealed that the NPA employs at least 42 military officers, who are ensuring that the NPA plays to Mnangagwa’s tune. The military, the video says, is sponsoring bandits, including those who attempted to bomb the First Family’s Gushungo Dairy, to show Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri — “seen as an obstacle to Mnangagwa’s succession plans” — as incompetent.

Zimpapers “has been taken over and continues to systematically vilify individuals identified as opponents in the Blue Ocean strategy document.”

Ousting Kasukuwere

The video states that Mnangagwa and allies engineered protests in Mashonaland Central against political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere. The “premeditated” demonstrations were led by serving soldiers and youths expelled by the party with the aim of removing Kasukuwere, followed by a re-organisation of the party’s provincial leadership before triggering an extra-ordinary congress where Mnangagwa would force a change of leadership.
Military Interference

The military, particularly Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantino Chiwenga, is neck-deep in Zanu PF succession politics, the video says. An audio recording of a journalist from Zimpapers saying Mnangagwa’s faction was virtually running the show at Zimpapers through Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba was played.

Plausible deniability

Blue Ocean says access to Mnangagwa by his acolytes should be limited, to give him plausible deniability for some of their controversial actions and statements. The video claims Mnangagwa has been using rogue party members to attack Mugabe and his wife, Grace. Despite Mnangagwa’s public denunciation of these allies, among them Energy Mutodi, Godwin Gomwe, Matemadanda, Mutsvangwa and Tsenengamu, the video says the denunciations are merely a “ruse to deceive the party and the public” because the officials are “working with and for Mnangagwa.”
The foot soldiers

The video says Mnangagwa has “amassed a significant horde of at least 482 co-conspirators that are working from their various party and government positions to advance his bid to unconstitutionally and criminally succeed President Mugabe.” The list includes politburo members as well as cabinet ministers.

Zanu PF companies looting

While using Zacc to plot charges against rivals, Mnangagwa’s past is “riddled with cases of corruption in which he defrauded Zanu PF companies” which he was running, the video says

Private terror militia

The video says Mnangagwa is “feared and loathed” in the Midlands where a terror group “Al-Shabaab” is his faction’s enforcement outfit. On the gold fields around Kwekwe, Shurugwi and Kadoma, Al-Shabaab is linked to 12 murders, mainly as a result of fights over gold mining claims.
Godfrey Majonga saga

The video also contains a dramatic charge: that Mnangagwa almost killed and succeeded in ending the career of ZBC television star Godfrey Majonga during a clash over a woman in 1987.

Mnangagwa in a fit rage allegedly forced love rival Majonga to choose between sitting on a hot stove or jumping off the third floor of a building in Harare. Majonga chose to jump through the window of the flat where the confrontation happened, and landed on hard concrete.

He broke his spine and suffered debilitating injuries which would confine him to a wheelchair for life.